Politics is a funny thing. It's like a great magician. When the trick is performed flawlessly, we all sit there wondering how it happened. A great politician uses the same basic skills as the magician; slight of hand, illusionary tricks and most definitely, showing you only what they want you to see. The great optics can be both a boon and a bust. With politicians, that bust is often spectacular.
Global warming-specifically as we know it in the current polemics of the day-is one of the best venues to observe such mastery of misdirection and magic. The media savvy stage hands at this point have crafted their skills perhaps as adeptly as the political masters they serve.
Now, like any political puppet show, the position a person takes is often a direct result of their political persuasion. While the public perception of the issue has now transcended the boundaries of nominal political leaning, there remains a loud minority outside of the central positioning of global warming.
A good deal of heated debate now swirls about on the motivation of all those involved, and as per normal, the almighty dollar lands up front.
There is a story developing right now, and has been in the works for some time now. Friends of Science, a non profit group based in Calgary, has been campaigning against the mainstream theory of the causes of global warming, and specifically against the Kyoto mandates.
Back in 2006, The Globe and Mail exposed the discrete fashion by which the organization had been receiving funds from the energy industry. While they dared not take funds directly from the energy companies to help fund their fledgling organization, they found in Barry Cooper a valuable friend. As a faculty member in Political Science at the University of Calgary, Dr. Cooper set up the Science Education Fund. Dr.Cooper then suggested to donors that they make their contributions through the Calgary Fund. This proved to be most useful, as the fund protects the anonymity of donors to such funds, and gives the donating party some charitable status. In this indirect manner, the FoS were able to procure $200,000 for their activities, as well as the travel expenses of one of their star media fellows, Dr. Tim Ball.
The funds helped create the video Climate Catastrophe Canceled. In the first press release, the video starts off with the UoC crest with the university name listed first, then followed by FoS. FoS maintained that Dr. Cooper obtained permission to use the universities name and crest. Roman Cooney the VP of external relations at the UoC says that is not true. All mention and appearance of the UoC were removed after the university administration was made aware of this fact.
It get's even more tangled yet. The fund that Dr. Cooper set up at the school, and it's involvement with the Calgary fund are a particular concern. The university would not mind that funds pass through them for research, but when funds pass through as third party election donations, that becomes a much bigger problem.
The ad campaign that the video was a part of, broke out during the previous federal election campaign. Curiously, it landed in Ontario, in Liberal ridings where the incumbent Liberals held slim leads in the polls. In some of these ridings, the Conservatives did manage to take the seats. Whether or not these were third party election advertisements remains to be seen. A complaint was recently filed with Elections Canada to investigate the seemingly happy coincident for the FoS and the Conservative Party.
The FoS are not a research organization. They had registered lobbyists in Ottawa and they do not participate in peer review. More importantly, the UoC needs to sever all ties to this botched vanishing act by the FoS and elections Canada will have yet another questionable incident by the Governing Conservative party to investigate.
How the act will finish is not yet known. Will the cables holding the mirrors break and reveal the elephant behind them? We'll have to sit and wait.
Global warming-specifically as we know it in the current polemics of the day-is one of the best venues to observe such mastery of misdirection and magic. The media savvy stage hands at this point have crafted their skills perhaps as adeptly as the political masters they serve.
Now, like any political puppet show, the position a person takes is often a direct result of their political persuasion. While the public perception of the issue has now transcended the boundaries of nominal political leaning, there remains a loud minority outside of the central positioning of global warming.
A good deal of heated debate now swirls about on the motivation of all those involved, and as per normal, the almighty dollar lands up front.
There is a story developing right now, and has been in the works for some time now. Friends of Science, a non profit group based in Calgary, has been campaigning against the mainstream theory of the causes of global warming, and specifically against the Kyoto mandates.
Back in 2006, The Globe and Mail exposed the discrete fashion by which the organization had been receiving funds from the energy industry. While they dared not take funds directly from the energy companies to help fund their fledgling organization, they found in Barry Cooper a valuable friend. As a faculty member in Political Science at the University of Calgary, Dr. Cooper set up the Science Education Fund. Dr.Cooper then suggested to donors that they make their contributions through the Calgary Fund. This proved to be most useful, as the fund protects the anonymity of donors to such funds, and gives the donating party some charitable status. In this indirect manner, the FoS were able to procure $200,000 for their activities, as well as the travel expenses of one of their star media fellows, Dr. Tim Ball.
The funds helped create the video Climate Catastrophe Canceled. In the first press release, the video starts off with the UoC crest with the university name listed first, then followed by FoS. FoS maintained that Dr. Cooper obtained permission to use the universities name and crest. Roman Cooney the VP of external relations at the UoC says that is not true. All mention and appearance of the UoC were removed after the university administration was made aware of this fact.
It get's even more tangled yet. The fund that Dr. Cooper set up at the school, and it's involvement with the Calgary fund are a particular concern. The university would not mind that funds pass through them for research, but when funds pass through as third party election donations, that becomes a much bigger problem.
The ad campaign that the video was a part of, broke out during the previous federal election campaign. Curiously, it landed in Ontario, in Liberal ridings where the incumbent Liberals held slim leads in the polls. In some of these ridings, the Conservatives did manage to take the seats. Whether or not these were third party election advertisements remains to be seen. A complaint was recently filed with Elections Canada to investigate the seemingly happy coincident for the FoS and the Conservative Party.
The FoS are not a research organization. They had registered lobbyists in Ottawa and they do not participate in peer review. More importantly, the UoC needs to sever all ties to this botched vanishing act by the FoS and elections Canada will have yet another questionable incident by the Governing Conservative party to investigate.
How the act will finish is not yet known. Will the cables holding the mirrors break and reveal the elephant behind them? We'll have to sit and wait.
